Friday, August 17, 2012

Because Kira Davis was Hurt by Toure and the Word "Niggerization": My Open Letter to a Black Conservative on Youtube

As I have written about here, Toure's more than accurate observation that Mitt Romney is trying to "niggerize" President Obama has been met with gasps, complaints, and no small case of the collective vapors by Conservatives throughout the Right-wing echo chamber. Social media is afire with protests about Toure's "racism." Blogs and muckrakers are driving some traffic with their manufactured outrage at his "racism." Romney's people are calling MSNBC's people in an effort to get Toure fired from his job as a guest commentator on the network.

Regular folks are chiming in as well; they are talking to cameras on Youtube and sharing their pain for all who will listen. One of them is Kiradavis422, (a relatively young) black conservative who is so very hurt and offended by Toure's use of the word "niggerization." I love these videos as they represent the best and worst that digital democracy has to offer, as the Internet allows citizens to give voice to their concerns about political and social matters on a huge stage.

I also love these Youtube talking head videos because they are teachable moments. As such, if I knew Kira Davis, and could talk to her directly, I would share the following bit of advice regarding her "pain" and "hurt" about Toure's choice of language.

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I found your video very entertaining. You are quite sincere in your upset and hurt at Toure's use of the word niggerization to describe Mitt Romney's campaign tactics against President Obama. I do think that you misunderstand the origins of the word and should do a bit more work before you swallow the simple talking points and explanations offered up by Fox News, conservative media and websites, and perhaps even your own family and friends. Those are important details; but my concerns are more basic and fundamental.

You are a young black conservative. I applaud your interest in politics. More people should be so inclined. It is also hard to be a black conservative because you will be subject to much criticism--a good deal of this will be deserved given how conservatism and the Tea Party GOP have been so nakedly hostile to the political and economic interests of people of color. Likewise, some of the criticism will be knee jerk and unfair.

I have a bit of advice: if you are going to be a conservative be a principled one. Read alot. There is much more to conservatism as a political tradition than Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fox News, and the half-trained bloviators you read online and see on TV. If you are a black conservative because you come from money, and want to protect your class interests, then so be it.

If you are a black conservative because you want to restrict women's reproductive rights, then so be it. Alternatively, you could be what we call a "single issue voter" who cares so much about one thing that it decides which political party they will support. That is not my cup of tea, and I do think that simple decision rules are very problematic for a good society, but such is life--at least you will have a foundation for why you choose to vote the way that you do.

As a woman of color, who is also a conservative, and supports the Republican Party, you are going to be asked some hard questions. Have answers ready. Don't fall back onto silly slogans and talking points such as "Republicans are the Party of Lincoln," "they supported the Civil Rights Movement," or "Dr. King was a Republican so I am too!" Those are tired answers which will quickly be exposed as weak and facile.

You are also going to need an answer for what political scientists call the Southern Strategy, what was/is Republicans' strategic and planned use of white racism to win elections. They have admitted to this ploy; you will need to have a good answer when queried about your support for a political party that does such things.

You have probably realized from the comments on your Youtube video, emails, and even things said to you by colleagues, friends, and family that you are "special" and "unique" because of your political views. I know that you have been called "one of the good ones," a "special" type of young black woman who can "think for herself." Republicans are going to fawn over you. They will also reach out to you in the form of invitations to retreats and think tanks for young conservatives.

Because you are a woman of color they will see you as a prized commodity and will even offer up free travel, room, board, and stipends to get you to come on board. Such moments are validating; your hard work is acknowledged by someone; the difficulties and perhaps even taunting and jeering you face as a black conservative are now being rewarded by a group of people who "get you."

How do I know this? Many years ago in high school, I was a black conservative, just like you are now. I can personally testify to, and share stories about, the types of outreach which the Republican Party and its various allies have in place to recruit young people of color to their cause.

You will, and apparently already have, quickly realized that being a black conservative can be quite lucrative and rewarding. Your mentors will tell you great stories about how you can be a young black leader who can help "uplift" their people...and oh by the way there is money to be made by doing so. The Right takes care of their favorite black and brown people--quite well, in fact.

Your sincerity about how Toure's comments hurt you, how they brought up memories about a racial incident from your earlier years, is transparent. You are good on camera and in communicating your feelings and emotions. But, I want to challenge you just a bit by asking a direct question: why did Toure's comments hurt you so? Was it because a black man used language that you dislike? Or was his suggestion, that conservatives use racism for political purposes, taken as a personal affront, a blow to the home team so to speak?

And here is where black conservatives become befuddled and confused when talking about their relationship to a political party which intentionally devises tactics to gin up white anxieties and fears--what we call "racial resentment"--in order to win elections by smearing people of color. I hope you do not fall into the trap.

2. Do you get upset when Republican candidates suggest that black people are social parasites who just want free money and to live off of white people?

3. Are you brought to near tears by the Birthers, the Graders, and the other assorted nonsense that the country's first black president has had to confront, what are attacks based solely on the assumption that a black person is not fit to be President of the United States?

5. Were you angry and pissed off when Tea Party members would show up at rallies with guns, calling for armed revolt, carrying signs that depict the country's first black president as a monkey, ape, witch doctor, gorilla or Nazi? Some of the Tea Party member, the base of the Republican Party at present, even used racial slurs to describe Barack Obama at these rallies; others have been caught sending out racist emails about the President and his family. Did this make you cry too?

Republicans want to claim that they are not racists. In fact, many on the Right want to argue that racism is something exclusive and common to "liberals" and "progressives." If they are in fact so principled, you should ask your mentors and the conservatives you admire, where was their outrage at the examples of racism and bigotry I highlighted above. Has the Republican Party disavowed and dishoned the racists in their midst?

You may meet with some evasion and consternation when you ask such a simple question. But, you should persist anyway.

There is a phrase that you have likely heard: the personal is political. This is just a fancy way of saying that there are many things about us, our identities and life experiences, which are impacted by politics. Moreover, we internalize many lessons from our society about what it means to be black or brown, male or female, straight or gay.

I have long believed that part of the appeal of being a black conservative, especially for the young people I have discussed politics with, as well as encountered in my classes, is that it reinforces a sense that you are "special," "unique," or "different." Black conservatives, and other people of color who are Republicans, are members of a small club. I would not call this club exclusive per se (because they always want new members) but it is not a large group. Being a member of this circle can be ego gratifying.

However, for many black and brown conservatives their political decisions are rooted in their experiences of living in a society that systematically devalues people of color. Let me unpack what I mean here in more detail.

In American society, black people are stereotyped as criminal, poor, lazy, uneducated, dangerous, unsuccessful, hyper-sexual, and violent. For example, in the mass media, the face of poverty and crime is a black and brown one--despite what statistics actually tell us about the social realities of crime and poverty in this country.

When a person steps back and examines the sum total of how black people are depicted in the United States's media (and popular imagination)--and the ways how even in "post racial" America that the color line still heavily determines people's life outcomes and success--who the hell would want to be born black in this country?

From your video it is apparent that you are smart and intelligent. In a society that is sick with racism, you are likely told that you are an "exceptional" black person. By implication--and here is where many black conservatives miscalculate--you may be tempted to generalize from your "special" abilities that the majority of black people who vote for the Democratic Party (and yes, are in many ways "conservative") are part of the "blackness" which you want to run away from. Consequently, being a black conservative, a Republican, is a logical extension of how you are special and unique in other ways.

I urge you to not mistake the white gaze, and how it misrepresents black and brown personhood, for the sum totality of our humanity. Do not see yourself through "white eyes." Black genius, success, beauty, intelligence, accomplishment, and creativity is common; we are not pathological, deranged, sick, and/or ugly. Many black conservatives confuse white supremacy's understanding of black humanity for an authentic representation of who we are as a people.

Our society is sick with racism. All of us, across the color line, have been impacted by it to one degree or another. Tragically, many black conservatives have internalized racism very deeply--Clarence Thomas, Larry Elder, Herman Cain, C.L. Bryant, Lloyd Marcus, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, and others are sick with it. That is why they are met with derision, laughter, and at times mocking tones by the black community.

Ultimately, I urge you to be a principled black conservative who has really meditated upon, and considered, these issues. I also urge you to realize that tens of millions of black Americans support the Democratic Party based on principled, reasoned, thoughtful political calculations. They have simply reached a different conclusion than you have. Despite what some black conservatives would argue, the black community is not on a Democratic Plantation, waiting for salvation, or in need of saving by conservatives such as yourself.

There will be many temptations along the way; you will be offered incentives to belittle, berate, and mock the black community. Please do not take them. Conservatives will want you to be a sock puppet for the poison pills that they want to deliver to the working people, as well as people of color, in this country. Do not let yourself be used; do not let yourself become what we call a "slave catcher."

Based on what I have read and seen about you online, I am unsure if the damage can be undone. There is always time, and a chance, to make a change.

I ran across this nugget of oddity (the vid) on my own today. I only got about a minute in before I jumped to the chase. And once she transitioned to the defense of Romeny, I just stopped.

I commend you for sticking with it, and for trying to show her, "How it's done."

Just curious. Has anyone done the check on her pedigree? She seemed more than a wee bit sock puppetty already. I mean really. An AfAm girl who has tramautic memories of being on the harm end of being called a nigger, DOESN'T get either, the, "It's not an insult if it is not used as a label (or weapon,)" part? Never mind the, "It's not the word it's the meaning of the word, in context," part?

It's one thing for tone-deaf white conservatives not to understand the problem is not the word itself, but the idea it represents (that can be easily conveyed with out using the word,) that really matters. But for a black girl not to get that?

Who wrote her script? And was she headed for the convention, to begin with? Are her mommy and daddy with the local GOP committee and/or already signed up with White Right Team Plutocrats yet? Is she a card carrying YR yet?

@Abstentus. I went back and had to change a few things from my first draft when I took her at face value. She is "youngish" and not "young"--although to her credit she looks the latter. Her speech is so polished I will do some research to see what her bio is. If folks know more about her do share--the performance is too perfect, and frankly, semi-believable. That promo was practice and polished.

She has a radio show; I emailed her and think it would be fun to go a few rounds.

I don't care what party she is in. I am just pissed that, in defense of a white man that all but called blacks lazy welfare recipients and a party that practices every day in any way possible, some sort of racial nuance, that she said it was the black man who did not understand race.

She may already be too far gone. I could see her dismissing what you wrote, offering counterpoints to each assertion without connecting the dots.

It may be true that black people are hypersensitive to criticism of Obama, because the opposition always goes in on the president. However, I cannot recall there ever being a concerted campaign to refute every comment that comes from the president.

Maybe it's just me, but the young lady appeared to me as if she was auditioning for a large piece of the Republican pie that you mentioned that naturally presents itself with being a modern day black slave-catching minstrel. I did not get a sense that her hurt and outrage was all that genuine in say the C.L. Bryant tradition. She may need to work on that a bit...but you can't ignore the raw potential. She certainly got the balls (no feminist aspersion intended). Though,I assume that the video was not shot anywhere near a black community or that she counts many blacks among her friends...bless her heart.

I also would not be surprised if she attends a conservative white Baptist church where she feels at home.

@comrade. she is likely deaf to my warnings; perhaps a wayward soul on her path could be saved. the gop and their minions dangle many treasures and much fool's gold before young people, especially young people of color, which the right thinks they can recruit out of high school and college.

@thrasher. please chime in old head brother--we need all the wisdom. that doesn't mean that age means you are correct. re: Biden. Here is one to get you thinking I would submit that there is not one damn thing inaccurate in what Biden said, even allowing for his intended audience being black and turning up the affected voice. Truth is truth. Folks are missing the message and fixating on how he said it.

Agreed Biden was right on the money from the delivery to the message this was one time I was proud of Obama for rolling with Biden of course Obama was wrong in this excuse and explanation of Biden's words.

It is rare a ruling class person articulates raw truth so when you hear it the message stuns folks

Biden speaks the truth, but when I watch the network news to see how they report it, they paint him as a senile clown. If he forgets the name of the town he's speaking in, they jump on that.

Back during the Anita Hill testimony, I was working second shift, so my days were free, and I watched every minute (not the network news distillations) and Biden left a bad taste in my mouth with his skeptical, passive agressive treatment of her. "So you say he harassed you? And yet you didn't..." etc. etc.

I don't know what audience Biden was playing for during his time with Anita Hill, but I found him offensive.

I like it when he speaks out against the gop, but I still see him as Obama's shrewd "balance the ticket with an old establishment white guy so the beltway isn't too scared" more than a courageous fighter for anyone's rights.

Indeed Kira Davis can lighten up because Toure has punked out. Just like the other day Rev. Al almost forgot that his role is to be Obama's attack dog to stifle the dissent of the unruly Afrikans.

“I think it was, I think he used the wrong term, I think he might have been over the top. But what, hateful? If he was referring to the middle class, even in front of a black audience, I don’t know how you make that hateful.” -- Sharpton on Biden

The only way she is going to let you on her radio show live is with a proviso that there is a five minute delay in broadcasting and that her friends have full control over editing your contibution to the broadcast. I assume she will have read you. Otherwise, if she is voluntarily going to get up on that bleeding cross, then we know that her martydom will have been planned and there is a huge deal already negotiated.

Anon,

We cannot forget that Biden is after all is said and done a huge beneficiary and example of white privilege with a healthy dose of unconscious liberal racism, and besides, has diarreah lips and no thought of his is safe from being disclosed at any time...like a manifestation of Turrett's Syndrome. He probably knows less state secrets than the bobble-head Dan Quale that George Bush had for a vice-president.

CNu,

Agreed, but did you expect more? Considering that he works, in part, for MSNBC, I believe that he won the stare-down, and came away with what dignity he has intact. I have to give him some credit.

@buddy. Biden is old school, inside, and white. I would have picked him too. Many people forget that radicals do not become President of the United States. The system is set up to prevent such a thing--why so many have forgotten that relative to Obama still befuddles me.

@free. i think some black conservatives are very principled. the ones you see on TV and trying to get their name up online are not for the most part. they like being special and many of them had something happen to them in their formative years that scarred them psychically. It was never processed properly thus this outcome.

Being a black conservative is money. I have no doubt, no doubt at all in my mind that I would be a millionaire if I started this website as a black conservative. I would be on TV, radio, the lecture circuit, selling books, etc.

The Right is great on the latter point, they have front groups put up by the Kochs and others to buy the very books their agents right. Those are expenses as business losses and written off on the taxes. How do you think that book on Obama has lingered on the NY Times list for so long? Straw buyers.

That isn't boasting; it is simply a fact based on what I know about the market for their wares.

@MB. I am no fan of his. He did punk out--predictably. It is all about the money. Dude has bills to pay.

@Razor. I emailed her and sent a message on Twitter. Nothing beyond a "thanks" and sending the url to a few of her Twitter buddies. The offer is there. I am harmless. Why wouldn't she want to chat?

Toure's apology was par for course for Black folks working in the corporate world.

It is a reality of the market place especially those who work in MSM venues.

Clearly it is one of the reasons many people here including our host file commentaries under and alias.

There is always a exchange for something of value. Toure of course did not offer up anything newsflash about how race operates in our nation given our country's racial legacy.

Toure's apology is a nothing burger what is more offensive and tragic is the Black ruling class dumping on Biden .I find this more instructive and backward that a talking head like Toure stating the obvious..

I was in a somewhat charitable mood with Toure because of the alternative that I dreaded he would do, which is drop his pants on national TV and grovel not to let the bad men rape him anymore. I expected much worse from him. We all knew that it was not outside the realm of possibility that he would spend a full five minutes apologizing to all of white Americans for having such temerity. Even the to the depths of perhaps apologizing to Kira Davis.

You are speaking truth about the black elite class in our country. They, being the black Democrat elites, are allowed their hour to put their heads in the trough of American spoils to, with better access than they have ever had, with Obama at the helm, ie. Rev. Al, Dr. Eric Dyson and others in Congress, save a minute few. That is their payoff.

Like MK said, they have become attack dogs for Obama against all black dissident voices.

It seems to me that a lot of black folk owe Tavis Smiley a profuse apology.

Toure's nonapology reminded me of two things. Firstly, that scene in the second Matrix film, with the Merovingian talking about how he loves to curse in French. "It's like wiping your ass with silk." There is some self satisfied look and sound to Toure there, like he was enjoying the feel of it.

The second thing it reminds me of is me. Well, me, when I still wasted time arguing with wing nuts and other racists (I literally mean that; other racists,) on message boards. Every now and then I would throw out some facutally lacking nothing. Some throwaway trifling line that some smarter wing nut could seize on. That would allow me to say, "Mea Culpa," and do it with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that down the road I could say, "Hey . . . when ever anyone catches me in an innacuracy I admit it. Just last week (or month) . . ."

Ya. Toure looked like that. To me. Like the cat who ate the canary. And enjoyed it.

Wow. This is one of the most racist things I have read in a while. Just because she is black miss Davis is being fawned over.

As for the list of supposed complaints:

1. Was nothing to do with race; it related to Obama's obvious anti-American politics

2. Is not true. Criticism is not race based, but based on willingness of people of all races to demand other people give them money. You are being racist assuming that is only related to black people.

3. Obama himself was the original birther. He wrote on his biographical information for his publisher that he was born in Kenya. He has not released his grades. That is unusual. He claims to be intelligent, yet accomplished nothing in any role. His grades are relevant to that claim, on which his election was largely based. Nothing to do with race.

4. Same as 2

5. Is simply a lie. There have been no real, credible stories of racism at Tea Party events. None at all. Oh, except from the press, who picture a man with his rifle, somehow hiding the fact he was black while they implied he was a racist.

On the other hand the OWS protests have been shot through with racism, mostly against Jews but also against black people, even black members of the movement. No mention of that?

So all five points just your racist interpretations or belief in lies.

I would never claim that racism is unique to the left. However it is more common on the left than the right.

Good question, I wanted to ask D.R. if there were any Tea Party members that where part of any hate groups. Also has any Tea party member apologized for signs asked to be removed from an event or have they had to remove anyone.

Uh..., lest I be mistaken as having gone soft on the Hon.Bro.Preznit.Double-O - my questions were not posed in defense of his politics and policies - rather - I'm sincerely curious about what specific politics and policies someone purportedly writing from the UK has in mind when he describes these as "anti-American"?

Kira Davis is married to Andy Kosove, a white Oscar-nominated movie producer and partner in Alcon Entertainment ('The Blind Side', 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 1 & 2', 'Dolphin Tale') - Kira is even listed with producer credits on some of their films. In spite of her video scolding of Toure having a 'home-spun' amateur look/feel, she is no amateur - indeed, far from it in re: media. Her political partisanship may be sincere, but one might reasonably question her claim of being punched in the face as a kid while being called the n-word, but that's just the skeptic in me after Herman Cain and US Rep Allen West (R-FL). Just wanted to share the info. Cheers.

Ok, I know it's two years later that I'm writing this. I was reading your article and got as far as your comment about the tea party: "a good deal of this will be deserved given how conservatism and the Tea Party GOP have been so nakedly hostile to the political and economic interests of people of color." I stopped reading at that point because I got deeply personally offended. I consider myself a Tea Party person. I have seen none of what you said about them in my contacts with them. I've seen black people among the Tea Party protesters. I want everyone to be happy, to have a job, to have self esteem, to be connected to their family and community and church. I know that to have a society like that can only raise me. Every Tea Party person I've talked to personally agrees with me. There are exceptions, but exceptions exist on both sides. Which Party was the party of the KKK, the party of segregation? The democrats thought by passing the civil rights act they could absolve themselves from this guilt. Would you like to know what Lyndon Johnson said when he signed it? He confided that if they could give the "niggers" freebies they would vote democratic for the next 200 years. Oops!

Now, as to my claim that I was deeply and personally offended: I am a 70 year old white male (I suppose the kind of profile people like you would call a bible thumping, christian, bigoted conservative male that wants to throw your mama off the bus or whatever it is that liberals unjustly characterize conservatives as being). I live in Memphis TN, traditionally a democratic enclave and I am a musician who plays saxophone, primarily jazz and blues. I've recorded at Stax studios, performed at WattStaxx 72 in LA colosseum with Luther Ingram. All my friends, except for a few, are black. I attend an all black church (except for me, literally) each and every Sunday. I also play sax there. I have never met a kinder, accepting congregation anywhere. We are family in every sense of the word except that we have different color skin. I engage in no political correctness and I always tell my new friends "if I have to be careful of what I say because you are black and I am white, then we will never truly be friends." I am a huge fan of Martin Luther King. I am also a huge fan of Calvin Coolidge, Alan Keyes, Star Parker, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Carson, Allen West, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ron Paul, Kira Davis, etc. Are you getting the point I'm trying to make by now? The point is that I align myself with those people, past and present, that share my philosophy, and I align myself with them not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I know that taking money from one person and giving it to another (while keeping a hunk of it for yourself) is something called stealing. I know that it diminishes and dehumanizes both parties (and yourself). There is no way to rationalize it to make it a just act. It's theft. I know that government is the problem. I know that if my government steals from me overtly or under color of law it is a crime. I believe that the government should fear us, not the other way around. I also know that corporations or oligarchies are the de facto government. These, to me, are undeniable truths and I know that liberal or progressive thinking is dangerous and destructive and can only lead to decline and decay. Look at Detroit as an example.

Kira has liberal friends but she arrived at her present way of thinking by critical analytic thought. The trouble I have with progressives is I think that they are the true racists because they think that if you're black you are supposed to act and think a certain way. And not a good way either.

Tips and Support Are Always Welcome

Who is Chauncey DeVega?

I have been a guest on the BBC, National Public Radio, Ring of Fire Radio, Ed Schultz, Sirius XM's Make it Plain, Joshua Holland's Alternet Radio Hour, the Thom Hartmann radio show, the Burt Cohen show, and Our Common Ground.

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